eBay

flippinfairy1 · ‎02-09-2021

Why are sellers allowed to not pay for items when they win an auction or pick one online? Why can’t eBay have buyers enter a credit card and simply charge it upon win an auction or purchase? I am constantly waiting for buyers to pay. This makes no sense. You buy something, you pay for it. Every other selling platform out there operated this way. Could someone at eBay explain why there is even an option not to pay at all?

bonjourami · ‎02-09-2021

What other platform does that..charging a cc,without the buyers agreement first to the amount? None that I know of...you can do fixed price with immediate payment required to solve that.

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“Never pick a fight with an ugly person. They don’t have anything to lose.” ~Robin Williams

simba6 · ‎02-09-2021

You can list as fixed price and set it to require payment at purchase. Then if the buyer does not pay, the sale does not go through.

powell-memorabilia · ‎02-09-2021

Depends on the site, and the seller. I buy a lot on invaluable.com - some auctions require credit card to register for bidding, and they often dictate that no payment in x days will result in charging that CC for the items won.

luckythewinner · ‎02-09-2021

@flippinfairy1 wrote:
Why are ~~sellers~~ buyers allowed to not pay for items when they win an auction or pick one online? Why can’t eBay have buyers enter a credit card and simply charge it upon win an auction or purchase? I am constantly waiting for buyers to pay. This makes no sense. You buy something, you pay for it. Every other selling platform out there operated this way. Could someone at eBay explain why there is even an option not to pay at all?

The answer is actually quite simple.

For the first two decades of its existence, eBay was not a payment processor and had absolutely no mechanism for accepting buyer payments. eBay always used a third-party payment processor service (i.e. PayPal) to handle buyer payments.

Not only that, but I suspect that many buyers do not want to give their payment information, tie up their funds, and authorize eBay to charge them just on the off chance that they win an auction a week or more into the future.

As for "every other selling platform" ...

If you sell items at fixed price, you can require immediate payment like most other venues do. But there are actually very few selling platforms that even offer auctions, let alone platforms that offer auctions and require a buyer to authorize future charges charge to their chosen payment method. Can you name a handful of those platforms for us?

ra_201044 · ‎02-09-2021

So if you list auctions, you wouldn't want to combine shipping? Or have the same person win multiple items?

Since I ONLY list auctions here, I try to list items in groups in hopes that someone can win multiple auctions so I can combine shipping to save them money. Plus it raises the ending price.

Same reason that if I had to buy 3 of something, the seller that does NOT have free shipping would usually get my business, as it would end up being cheaper in the long run over someone who lists with 'free shipping'.

ra_201044 · ‎02-09-2021

@powell-memorabilia wrote:
Depends on the site, and the seller. I buy a lot on invaluable.com - some auctions require credit card to register for bidding, and they often dictate that no payment in x days will result in charging that CC for the items won.

I do too - but a lot of houses I deal with will waive that if they have an auction the following weekend and there is stuff I want to bid on in that auction also. That way they will combine the shipping with the first auction. Of course, I've been dealing with a lot of them for a long time, and most pack and ship in-house, and I've never not paid for any auctions. And I had asked about that long ago, with no problems.

It wouldn't work with the ones that outsource the packing/shipping, because it usually leaves the auction house the next day on it's way to whoever is going to ship it. I try to avoid those - unless the prices are going cheap - knowing that it's going to be a much larger shipping cost than the ones who ship in-house.

luxgoods · ‎02-09-2021

I agree with you but you will get people here saying that it's ok . I have all of my items set up as BIN with Immediate payment required. If I take a look at people watching my item and I make an offer to a buyer and they accept my offer then immediate payment is out the window. I have had so many deadbeat buyers not pay which ties up my inventory for close to a week. You have to wait days to open a unpaid item case then you have to wait longer to close the case.

yourupsman · ‎02-09-2021

Anyone received an email from eBay asking for us to update our bank details? It sure looked like a phishing attempt, but there is a banner on my seller page. Why would there be a need if I have been recieving payouts just fine- and now all the sudden they say my payouts will be held?

pburn · ‎02-09-2021

@yourupsman

You may want to start your own brand new thread on this topic on the Payments board so it will get the attention it deserves, rather than inserting your question into someone else's topic where it may get overlooked.

Payments Discussion Board

tellmemama · ‎02-09-2021

@luxgoods wrote:
I agree with you but you will get people here saying that it's ok . I have all of my items set up as BIN with Immediate payment required. If I take a look at people watching my item and I make an offer to a buyer and they accept my offer then immediate payment is out the window. I have had so many deadbeat buyers not pay which ties up my inventory for close to a week. You have to wait days to open a unpaid item case then you have to wait longer to close the case.

You can solve this pretty easily. If a buyer makes an offer you find acceptable, instead of going through accepting their Best Offer, change the listing to the new selling price. Let the buyer know what you're doing (and when!) and mention that the price change will be in effect for 24 hours or however long you want. If another buyer swoops in and gets it, well that's too bad. You're still getting the price you are comfortable with and it would be just like someone coming in and buying while you two were negotiating.

Best part? Your immediate payment is still required.

Joe

powell-memorabilia · ‎02-09-2021

Ditto on those that outsource the packing and shipping!

flippinfairy1 · ‎02-12-2021

That was true YEARS ago when they were doing mostly auctions. But that has not been the case for eBay in many years. This is an ongoing source of frustration amongst sellers for MANY years. eBay is well aware of the problem but (for some reason), they have chosen not to deal with it.

I was speaking about my ‘Buy it now’ purchases. (Less than 5% of my sales are auctions. And those are NOT the ones I’m largely having issues with nonpayment.)

If I buy something on any of eBay’s competitors (i.e. Poshmark, Etsy or Amazon), I don’t have the option NOT to pay. You order/buy something; you have to pay for it.

Sadly, this is driving many sellers like me away from eBay. This is the ONLY platform where this is an issue.

I would love to hear (directly from eBay) why (at least the ‘Buy it Now’) items can’t be automatically paid for when you select them. I understand that auctions may be a different animal.

Anne

seller since 2002

oneblindcat · ‎02-12-2021

If I made an offer and the seller listed it at that price and someone else snapped it up, I'd be very unhappy.

Probably put the seller on my do-not-buy-from list.

But then, when a seller accepts my offer, I pay as soon as I see the message. But I'm not at home and awake 24-7.

Judging by the varied response times to my offers, neither are sellers.

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I am a volunteer here to try and help others, so be nice and remember - My advice might well be worth what you're paying for it.

luckythewinner · ‎02-12-2021

I was speaking about my ‘Buy it now’ purchases. (Less than 5% of my sales are auctions. And those are NOT the ones I’m largely having issues with nonpayment.)

My mistake. Are you not selecting the "Immediate payment required" option when you list at fixed price?

I would love to hear (directly from eBay) why (at least the ‘Buy it Now’) items can’t be automatically paid for when you select them.

I think eBay would tell you that Buy It Now items can be paid for when a buyer purchases, but that this is a seller option and the seller must selected it.